


The Things That Make Us Human

by BetterLateThanNever



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Birthday Party, Fluff, Human Castiel, M/M, Post Season/Series 08 Finale, but it could certainly be read that way, this story is not blatantly destiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-02
Updated: 2013-06-02
Packaged: 2017-12-13 19:13:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/827847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BetterLateThanNever/pseuds/BetterLateThanNever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel has never had a birthday party. Dean wants to fix that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Things That Make Us Human

“I’ve never had a birthday party.”

This comment from Cas really gets to Dean for some reason. It’s thrown out casually into the air one night as they watch TV in a musty motel room in some backwoods town. It’s just one of Cas’ casual observations, one of the many he’s been making as he settles into his humanity and Dean doesn’t know why, but this one sticks with him. It lands in his chest and resonates with the memories of his lost childhood and Dean can’t seem to let this one slide.

It festers quietly for months, not always at the forefront of Dean’s mind but always present somewhere in his consciousness. The idea that Cas had been denied something as simple as a birthday party rankles, especially now that Cas is fully human.

One day Sam is delivering a lecture on whatever beastie they’re hunting that week (Dean had stopped listening around the time Sam said “So get this…”) and Dean interrupts with a mumbled “We should throw him a birthday party.”

Sam looks slightly affronted at being stopped mid-speech but he asks Dean to clarify all the same.

“What are you talking about?” Sam asks, holding back the bitch face sitting just under his skin.

“I mean, Cas has been human for a while now, right? But he doesn’t have a birthday. I just think he should have a birthday like the rest of us.” Dean says.

“Yeah, that makes sense, everyone needs a birthday,” Sam hesitates. “But that’s not what you said. You said we should throw the guy a birthday party.”

Dean is immediately on the defensive. “What? That just something people do. Humanity means birthdays and birthdays mean birthday parties. It’s only logical.”

Sam quirks an eyebrow at the Star Trek reference but he barrels on with as much delicacy as a moose can muster. “People have birthday parties, but we don’t.” Sam frowns, “I can’t even remember the last time we acknowledged our birthdays, let alone celebrated them.”

“I know man, but we had them before,” he doesn’t need to say before what because Sam already knows, “and I just think it’ll help him be more… human, ya know?”

Sam looks at his brother and honestly, he doesn’t know. But he sees that same feverish desperation in his eyes that’s been present since Castiel fell. That yearning to prove to Cas that an earthbound life with a drunk and a dropout is still worth living. So even though Sam doesn’t quite grasp why it’s so important to Dean the sheer fact that it is important is enough for him to end up in a 24-hour convenience store at 1 in the morning picking up crappy cupcakes and candles while Dean diverts Castiel’s attention across town.

When Dean gets Sam’s text to signal that it’s OK to return to the motel room he is eternally grateful. The only thing he could come up with to divert Cas at this time of night was a late night screening of Harry Potter. Dean loves Cas but if he has to listen to one more question about magical plot holes, Cas’ first birthday is going to be his last. He ushers Cas out of the cinema and drives across town, rubbing his sweaty palms against his baby’s steering wheel as his excitement builds.

This party iss about Cas and the bone deep sadness he feels as he straddles the line between human and angel. Dean could see the struggle he faced much clearer than Sam could. Despite losing all his celestial power, Cas was still not entirely one thing or the other. Some days he was an angel with no power or connection to heaven and the others he was a human with none of the experiences to back it up.

Dean could also somewhat selfishly admit that this party was about him too. He still felt the sting of his lost childhood, a sting that he’s tried to shield Sammy from, and while he was planning this party for Cas he’d felt… normal. For the first time in a long time Dean just feels like someone throwing a surprise party for his friend, not like a hunter or a failure.

Dean pushes open the door for Cas and him and Sammy shout surprise raucously making Cas jump. The cupcakes are small and stale and the candles have already dripped wax onto the icing, the only decoration Sam has managed to find is a balloon saying ‘It’s a boy’ and the brothers’ rendition of Happy Birthday is off-key and lacklustre at best.

All in all it is probably one of the saddest birthday parties in human history, but Dean takes one look at the joy and squinty confusion warring on Cas’ face as he questions every aspect of the custom and the memory is quickly cemented as one of Dean’s happiest.

A few months later when Dean’s birthday rolls around Cas presents Dean proudly with a cupcake covered with melted candle wax and a sad half-deflated balloon and Dean is so surprised and grateful that he thinks he might cry. Instead he grabs Cas in a manly one armed hug and hides his face briefly in Cas’ shoulder. The last year since Cas fell has been hard and at some points near impossible as they clean up Metatron’s mess. But now with Cas here, grinning stupidly up at Dean and very, very human, Dean thinks that maybe, just maybe, it was all sort of worth it.


End file.
